Long time readers of this site will know that my first rule for people who ask about supplements, is to not take supplements. I’ve found that after more than 10 years of serious training, most folks want to talk short cuts, rather than hard work, and they think supplements are just the short cut for them. That doesn’t mean that all supplements are bad, but in my experience there are only a few with solid scientific research behind them. Keep reading if you want to see which two I recommend and why.
Before we nerd out on science and sports performance, I want to further emphasize that any benefit you receive from these supplements, will pale in comparison to sleeping 8 hours a night and eating enough quality food. Those two things, combined with a solid program like this one, or like this one, will yield 95% of your benefits. Now, onto the science!
Perviously, I’ve written about the benefits of Creatine and HMB, and I still believe it’s a great supplement. In fact, if you read the article you’ll see that it’s the only supplement combo that consistently does well in scientific meta analysis, or research reviews.
In that article I tried a pre made Creatine HMB mixture which is produced by Blonyx. I had good luck with it and saw noticeable increases in my performance, especially in my work capacity. Read the article about it’s benefits, for the details.
I then decided to try the Beta Alanine product in conjunction with the Creatine HMB product to see what the effects are, but before we get into the results lets discuss what Beta Alanine is. Hold on it’s about to get sciency!
How Beta Alanine Works
When you exercise your muscle cells produce waste products that interfere with the processes that allow you to continue to exercise. When you exercise very hard, you produce a lot of these waste products, and more importantly you produce hydrogen ions, which causes changes to the pH in your cells.
This is super important because it is actually what is causing that burning sensation in your muscles, and it significantly interferes with normal muscle function.
The body is very clever, and has ways to mitigate this build up of hydrogen ions, one of these methods is a chemical called carnosine. Now stay with me I’m almost done wearing my lab coat.
You can think of carnosine as attaching itself to the ions, so they stop screwing up your muscle cells. Beta Alanine supplementation drastically increases the amount of carnosine in your muscle cells, which drastically improves your bodies ability to clear the hydrogen ions under intense exercise, boosting performance.
If you want to get even more in depth you can read this excellent research review covering 15 studies about beta alanine.
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Why Take Beta Alanine and Creatine HMB ?
Why not? Just kidding, there actually is a reason I chose to pair them together. Both have been shown to increase exercise output; however, they do so through different mechanisms. HMB and creatine primarily enhances muscle protein synthesis, which in simple terms means your muscles can physically repair themselves quicker.
As we learned above, Beta Alanine allows you to function better in highly anaerobic exercise. It made sense that if I was able to work out harder, then I should probably try and enhance my recovery as well.
The Results of Beta Alanine and Creatine HMB
I took both supplements for a month of hard training in January 2018. This was the first cycle of my 10 Weeks in Hell Competition Prep Program. At first I noticed no difference which is honestly to be expected, this ain’t that stuff they gave Captain America.
However, I noticed a definite increase in my performance within two weeks. In one particular workout, I had to complete 3×3 snatches at 185 lbs, and my legs were pretty sore from an intense session a few days prior.
Having done this for a while I can tell you that sore legs generally don’t equal great success with heavy snatches. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get through all 9 reps fairly easily.
Furthermore, I could tell on a lot of the WOD’s and EMOM sessions that while my maximum capacity wasn’t really any higher, I didn’t tire at the rate I normally would.
For example, in a hard 10 min EMOM I generally start to feel it around round 7, and on the supplements, I would start to degrade at round 9 instead.
Over all I finished about 2-3% better in my competitive season in 2018 vs 2017 and I think the supplements had a lot to do with that.
How to Do Your Own Trial
If you are interesting in increasing your own performance and you are taking care of the basics already, then these products can help you. If you can’t remember the last time you slept more than 5 hours, then don’t bother, take a nap instead!
I do have a relationship with Blonyx, so if you decide to purchase either or both of these products then please click on the banner below, and they will pay me a small commission for referring you, at no cost to you. In fact you get 10% off by clicking, everyone wins.
I recommend testing yourself on a benchmark lift, and at least one bench mark WOD prior to taking them. Complete your training cycle with the supplements then retest to see what effect it had. This way you can decide if it is something personally worthwhile.
Both Products together are less than $100 a month, and the beta alanine is about $30 by itself, using the banner above.
If you have any questions, comment below and I’ll answer you ASAP!
Now get out there and train.
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